A HUYTON man was among nine Merseysiders jailed for their part in one of Britain’s biggest ever cocaine rings – worth a potential £4bn.

Martin McMullen, 60, of Bluebell Lane, Huyton, was said to have “messed up” one of the planned importations after a trip to Caracas. He was jailed for 23 years.

Much of the massive conspiracy was run from an innocuous city centre telephone box and saw the Liverpool gang working with high-ranking London crooks and international drug dealers as they looked to flood the streets with 40 tonnes of coke from Columbia.

Their plan involved bringing the drugs over from Central America by sea – Honduras was considered before Venezuela was favoured as a casting off point for the shipments – with the illegal loads stashed in tins of fish or wood pellets.

Three times they tried but internal squabbles and mix-ups meant that despite hundreds of thousands of pounds changing hands the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) got in to stop them before the plot could come off.

At the head of the Liverpool end of the scheme was 55-year-old Paul Taylor.

He was watched driving from his Vauxhall home to his “office”, a phone box on Old Hall Street, opposite the ECHO offices, to ring his London counterpart, Mehmet Baybasin, part of a long line of established international drug dealers.

Soca’s officers on Operation Chaplin listened in on calls between Taylor and Baybasin as they talked of ‘36s’ (£36,000 for a kg of cocaine) and buying ‘200 bits’ (shipments of 200kg).

They watched from afar as Taylor headed to the capital to meet Baybasin in an Elstree cafe and they looked on in astonishment as visitors to Taylor’s home – which was bugged – parked around the corner and then clambered over his back gate in the hope of not being seen.

The plan was hatched in July 2008 when Baybasin was to use his already established contacts in the global drugs game to supply between two and three tonnes of cocaine to Taylor and his Merseyside network.

If that shipment was a success the pair talked about a stockpile of some 40 tonnes they could buy from the Central American dealers and smuggle in piecemeal.

The cocaine would be bought at a “wholesale price” and then sold to other gangs who would dilute it down and sell it on – either to yet more criminals or on the streets.

If all the coke had made it into Britain, and was cut before being sold, experts believe it could have been worth around £4bn.

Although the main deal was to be for the cocaine the two gangs dealt in whatever commodity they could – including other drugs, money laundering and fake passports.

Despite foiling the big plot the gang did bring some drugs through and in just seven months Soca seized 10kg of heroin, 50kg of cannabis, three kilos of cocaine, 200 kg of amphetamine and more than £260,000 in cash.

There were so many different crimes going on around the same time that when the main players were rounded up and put before the courts they faced in total 76 separate counts across six charge sheets.

At Liverpool Crown Court 12 were sentenced to a total of 200 years and two months. Another 12 were due to be sentenced this week.

Of those already dealt with all pleaded guilty to various drugs charges except Baybasin, Martin McMullen from Huyton and Andrew Molloy from Walton who were convicted by a jury.

Judge David Aubrey QC told the gang they had the “greed for the good life”, adding: “The quantities or potential quantities of drugs that were to come into this country and subsequently flood our streets, pubs, homes and clubs and the potential profit that you were seeking or did make is staggering.

“One thing is clear – each of you lived, breathed and slept controlled drugs.

“This was a highly sophisticated criminal enterprise that almost spread the breadth and length of the globe.

“I am satisfied they were not pie in the sky amounts that were spoken of. They were real estimates and amounts as to what was readily available in the warehouses or stockpile of drugs in Central America.

“A source had 40 tonnes stockpiled. I am told, and I accept, that the wholesale value of 500 kilograms alone is £17.5m and the retail value would be that much greater.”

Addressing Taylor, who he jailed for 22 years, the judge said: “You were at the helm of the Liverpool organised crime group.

“You were the leader of the pack in this city controlling and directing operations.

“You were the main organiser of the contemplated importation and a substantial regional supplier of controlled drugs.”

To Baybasin, who was jailed for 30 years, Judge Aubrey said: “The jury found you were not a legitimate businessman although masquerading as such. You were a participant at the highest level in a drugs conspiracy and international drug trafficking on a vast scale.”

Steve Baldwin, Head of Investigations in the North West for Soca, said: “This was a network with a very clear focus. Baybasin, Taylor and their cronies lived and breathed drug trafficking. It's all they ever talked about and while they talked, Soca listened and watched.

“Bringing down the entire network was only possible because of a tremendous international partnership. Merseyside Police, the PSNI, partners in South and Central America, and the Crown Prosecution Service all played a crucial part in achieving this excellent result.”

Listen to an audio recording from Paul Taylor’s home >>>>>>>>>>>>>

Audio recording from Taylor’s home (Warning: contains some offensive language)

Paul Taylor: So, so in the end, I, I, I went to Tony [Anthony Geraghty] well, on the way home this was, I went what’s he gonna put it in the fish, he went, five hundred, but every month...

Taylor (again): Give it to him, he’s gonna, the fat man won’t be going today know, cos Tony’s gorra go and speak to the captain, to sort the meet out, you know what I mean so. Cos what, what Mehmet (Baybasin)’s said, he said, (whispers), the man with the boat, he said 40 tonne, 40 tonne he’s got, he said the erm, so, he said I wanna, he said I cant do nowt wrong with him cos he will go somewhere else,

James Fairbrother: Yeah exactly

Taylor: He said, it is stockpiled, he said, an we haven’t moved nothing, he said what it is, you know when there’s nothing don’t ya, or over there - all these Mexicans are f****** killing them all, f****** killing them all.

Fairbrother: Are they?

Taylor: Takin’ more or less take over, he said I know there’s, they are murdered and they don’t give a f***, he said, they’ll kill anyone these Mexicans, he said they’re f****** mad.

Fairbrother: Yeah

Taylor: In Madrid, he said, he said that’s it, there’s f****** tonnes of it piled up, there there’s tonnes of it , he said, they can’t move it, he said, they are f****** business up all together….

Nine city gang members locked up for drugs plot

Liverpool gang leader Paul Taylor, 55, of Paul Orr Court in the Eldonian Village, was jailed for 22 years.

The head of the London end of the conspiracy Mehmet Baybasin, 48, of Fairfield Crescent, Edgeware, Middlesex, was given 30 years behind bars.